Take out food

[HeatherC]

We just ordered take out tonight and once again I was underwhelmed. It was expensive and we were all like “wasn’t that great”.

I have to start stocking up on some things to keep in the freezer that don’t require any prep. Most nights I do cook fresh and try to make healthy meals. But some nights I just don’t want to cook and no one else likes to cook so we wind up ordering.

Do you order take out a lot? Do you like it or do it more like I do when I’m just not feeling like cooking?

 

[hopemax]

Takeout at our house got much better when I got an Air Fryer. When we get home we'll pop stuff in for 1-3 minutes and it's much better. But some types of cuisine seems to hold up better. Chinese, Indian, some Italian. We did take out steak twice during "lockdown" and it was okay, the steak wasn't overcooked, but it had cooled down more than I would have liked.

 

[disykat]

We do take out maybe once a week? We used to eat out, but subbed take out for obvious reasons and still haven't started eating out again. Eating out was more recreational, the take out thing is just about variety or sometimes pure laziness I guess. (If we're out and about it's convenience, but I'm talking about sitting at home and deciding to get take out.)

For me, it's not really the cooking or even the clean up after. It's the having a plan, doing the shopping, using all the food in a timely fashion so it doesn't spoil, etc. that get's wearing. I've been sick and haven't gotten to the store this week so meals are getting a bit weird, but I'm definitely using up stuff!

I have seriously considered doing a meal plan where they send you the kit, but I know I can do it for less money myself. It just gets tiring! I get in a pretty good routine for a while, then I get bored or our schedules change and I have to create a new plan.

 

[mjkacmom]

I can order takeout from dozens of restaurants (and have it delivered), pretty much anything, but keep on hand, various cheeses and crackers, frozen cleaned shrimp (quick to defrost, stirfry, shrimp tacos, shrimp and grits), individual frozen chicken breasts, tortillas, shredded cheddar (quesadillas), rao’s pasta sauce for emergencies, always have carrots/celery/onions/garlic for soup, ground beef for burgers/tacos/sloppy Joe’s, eggs/breakfast meats/cheese for egg casseroles - I can usually come up with a quick easy meal with something in the house.

 

[kdonnel]

Didn’t like take out before Covid. Covid reaffirmed our dislike.

If we are going to have someone cook for us, we are going out.

 

[kirstenb1]

We live in a small town, so we have just a few restaurants. I'll order a pizza for takeout once every 2 or 3 weeks, otherwise, I just cook something easy if I'm not in the mood to cook. If we had more choices, I'd be more interested in take out.

 

[dclpluto]

We do take out maybe once a week? We used to eat out, but subbed take out for obvious reasons and still haven't started eating out again. Eating out was more recreational, the take out thing is just about variety or sometimes pure laziness I guess. (If we're out and about it's convenience, but I'm talking about sitting at home and deciding to get take out.)

For me, it's not really the cooking or even the clean up after. It's the having a plan, doing the shopping, using all the food in a timely fashion so it doesn't spoil, etc. that get's wearing. I've been sick and haven't gotten to the store this week so meals are getting a bit weird, but I'm definitely using up stuff!

I have seriously considered doing a meal plan where they send you the kit, but I know I can do it for less money myself. It just gets tiring! I get in a pretty good routine for a while, then I get bored or our schedules change and I have to create a new plan.

Just make extra and have left overs the next day.

 

[Ellie008]

The only take out that I appreciate is pizza. Everything else just gets soggy.

Lately I think I would rather just cook myself. It is nice to not have to cook, but the food isn't great, and the service is bad. Everywhere.

 

[tvguy]

Most of the places here in the past nearly two years have perfected as much as they can way to keep food hot and fresh for to go orders.
The issue now is with the labor shortage. I posted two weeks ago we tried to order sushi to go and the restaurant has stopped taking to go orders. They only have enough staff to handle people eating in.

 

[tvguy]

Takeout at our house got much better when I got an Air Fryer. When we get home we'll pop stuff in for 1-3 minutes and it's much better. But some types of cuisine seems to hold up better. Chinese, Indian, some Italian. We did take out steak twice during "lockdown" and it was okay, the steak wasn't overcooked, but it had cooled down more than I would have liked.

We have done take out lobster three times since the pandemic started. 5 minutes in the oven at 250 degrees seemed to be enough to get it back warm but not dry it out.

 

[HeatherC]

I can order takeout from dozens of restaurants (and have it delivered), pretty much anything, but keep on hand, various cheeses and crackers, frozen cleaned shrimp (quick to defrost, stirfry, shrimp tacos, shrimp and grits), individual frozen chicken breasts, tortillas, shredded cheddar (quesadillas), rao’s pasta sauce for emergencies, always have carrots/celery/onions/garlic for soup, ground beef for burgers/tacos/sloppy Joe’s, eggs/breakfast meats/cheese for egg casseroles - I can usually come up with a quick easy meal with something in the house.

I can too, but I just get lazy. Why do these people I live with need to eat?

 

[disykat]

Most of the places here in the past nearly two years have perfected as much as they can way to keep food hot and fresh for to go orders.
The issue now is with the labor shortage. I posted two weeks ago we tried to order sushi to go and the restaurant has stopped taking to go orders. They only have enough staff to handle people eating in.

Where we live a lot of places are still doing take out only for the same reason.

 

[tvguy]

Where we live a lot of places are still doing take out only for the same reason.

I guess take out had so overwhelmed the sushi place they went the other way.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

Not cooking is a real treat for me. We order out maybe once every other month and it’s just a pizza or chicken which is fine. I’m just happy I didn’t have to cook or wash a bunch of dishes.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

I can too, but I just get lazy. Why do these people I live with need to eat?

I hear ya! I swear my husband is like a cave man. Must eat food! I cook pretty much every night and it’s always protein, starch and veggie. I on the other hand am happy with a bowl of cereal.

 

[tasha99]

We don't really do takeout anymore. The pandemic made me learn how to make the foods we used to get for takeout, so now we just eat more restaurant style food at home. Our previous go-to takeout foods were Thai and Indian, but now I can make pretty much everything we ever used to order. It's hard to go back to spending money on food that is usually no better that what I make at home. Plus, my husband is a bit of a germiphobe and is happy to have me in charge of food sanitation instead of some strangers.

Of course, I still want nights off. We keep some frozen convenience food for that. Often it's homemade, but sometimes its frozen Costco food.

 

[tvguy]

Going to pickup my take out now.

 

[Kittyblue]

I do take out once a week for the kids.

 

[neverlandsky]

We have takeout twice a month. It's between locally owned Donuts, Asian, or Mexican. All are very good and budget friendly.

 

[Colleen27]

We used to get takeout more often than we should, but there are so few restaurants in my community that it inevitably gets repetitive and those that we do have are operating on such reduced schedules that these days I can't count on anything being open anyway. So I'm cooking more and keeping more quick-prep meals like frozen shrimp or chicken and pre-cut veggie blends and such around for the nights when I don't feel like "real" cooking but still need to come up with something for dinner.